That one time the Allies Invaded Siberia...

So, I couldn't sleep. I went on google went looking around at Canadian Military History and noticed between World War 1 and World War 2 something called, "The Battle of Tulgas." Huh? What is this? I don't remember anything in school about a conflict between World War 1 and 2?
Well, it was more of a skirmish of sorts. And the darndest thing? It took place at the very end of the First World War in 1918...

Well, it was because of a little thing called the Russian Revolution. See, there was alot of people in Russia that weren't exactly thrilled with the way things were going. This man, one Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (lets call him Lenin) was the leader of a group of people called the Bolsheviks and they went and did a thing that involved pretty much taking over the country and suing Germany into a peace deal (among other things).

This didn't exactly please these two (King George V of England and President Wilson). Their thinking was that since Russia was now out of the war, the Germans would shift troops to the Western Front causing severe damage and further muddying things there. So they came up with a bit of a plan that involved getting Russia BACK into the war and keeping the Germans right where they were.

Despite the fact that the Bolsheviks had nearly taken over the entire country, there remained a group of Imperial Russian Officers called The Whites (Calm yourselves) who pledged that if they could take back control of their country, they would re-open the front with the Germans.
Well, this made Britain and France understandably happy and they bugged the US President to commit troops to Siberia to assist the situation.

Meet "The Polar Bears." or the US 339th Infantry Division. These guys were trained in Britain with Trusty British Lee-Enfield Rifles and were thinking they were going to be sent to France to assist with the war.
Well, instead they had their Lee-Enfield's replaced with Mosin Nagants and were told they were shipping out... To Siberia (Insert Yay)

Their mission, was threefold.
1: Assist a group of anti Bolshevik fellows called The Czech Legion in escaping the Reds via the Trans Siberian Railway
2: Secure millions of dollars in military hardware stored in a port city to keep it away from the Bolsheviks hands.
3: Help the Whites take back their country from the Bolsheviks.
When they got to Siberia, they were met by the Brit's (Oh hello) who had already been there for a month (Shitty) and had almost completely finished with objective 2.

Now, the US commander Major Graves (Shown above looking all spiffy and what not) decided that since he couldn't really see any logic to fighting the Russians, he'd much rather accomplish the evacuation of the Czech Legion, and leave things at that. This meant not helping the Whites at all and doing nearly everything he could to avoid fighting the Reds.
Well, like it or not, some of his guys along with some Brits and Canadians (Yay we are relevent) got into a little thing in a place called Tulgas which was 200 miles South of a place called Archangel (Cool name I know) against a force of around oh 2500 Bolsheviks AND a couple of River Gunboats....

The Allied force, which was made up of 1 US Rifle Company, 1 British Rifle Company and a Canadian Field Gun Battery was there to maintain a hospital, a blockhouse and a town split in half by a stream with a church.
Sometime in the morning of November 11th 1918 (Yeah shitty timing) the Bolsheviks attacked the town where most of the US units were and made them retreat back across the stream as they were at risk of being overrun.

The Bolsheviks completely took over the main town and that included the Hospital. Their leader who the Americans said was a "big bear of a man" named Melochofski ransacked the town and when he got to the hospital, ordered his men to kill the wounded Brits and Americans left there. But he was stopped by two things:
A British Medical MCO offering the Reds Rum and Rations in a bid to save the wounded and Melochofski's mistress (who followed him into battle) saying she would shoot the first soldier under Melochofski who dared follow that command. Of course he countermanded that and then left. He eventually ended up dying in his mistress's arms a few minutes later (oh the tragedy)...
Strengthened by what they perceived to be an easy fight, the Reds tried pushing the Canadian battery and hit a bit of a snag...
Turns out, the Canadians and a Company of Royal Scots had turned the field guns to face the enemy and fired point blank killing a fair number of them and pushing them back into the main town. But it wasn't enough. The telegraph line out of the town was cut, and that ruled out reinforcements to the Allied group. The Americans held the southern part of the town (shown above) and attempted to clear some Red snipers with the help of the Canadian Field Guns. The Brits held the church and kept any wandering Reds back.
When nightfall came, the Allied forces had put up a great fight, but were now cut off and surrounded... (Swell)

Oh boy, morning. Will things be better??
No.
The morning of the 12th brought with it a group of Red Gunboats that fired salvos of six-inch shells at Allied positions. They were joined by a Russian artillery battery that had landed across the river during nightfall.
This fire destroyed the Blockhouse killing two Americans. Then to make things worse, the Reds then charged the bridge across the stream next to the British-held church only to be pushed back by British Lewis Guns each time they tried.Each time though, they inflicted casualties on the Allies and their numbers of fighting men started to dwindle...
During the commotion of all of this, a group of Royal Scots snuck back to their field hospital to find their wounded alive and well... And all under the care of Mr.Melochofski's mistress. (She's such a nice lady)